the reel ess

Here's my experience yesterday and today. I caught two yesterday at the local reservoir. 48 degree water. One on a lipless crank in about 5' and another on a jig/craw off a log at the dam. Today I caught one on the lipless crank in about 2' of water. These were in areas that get the most sun. Today I only focused on that area. Do all the things mentioned in the posts above and don't expect many bites. Those are just icing on the cake.

How about Chickamauga? The Tactical Bassin guys relocated there and have some good videos up on YT already.

About the only place I couldn't live is the desert. That's out. The Brazos River is a possibility though.

If you're like me you'll find the fishing opportunities no matter where you move. So find yourself a place near a jerkwater lake that's not far from a town. You might be surprised how many retirees are in the area. I grew up on L Wateree, SC and there were retirees up and down our road. They would ride up on their carts and introduce themselves. It was not our primary residence so we were glad to have them looking after our place.

Too many drug cartel types around there. ??

In my neck of the woods it's just a matter of personal preference. People persecute the bass during spawn here and it never seems to hurt the population. I'd have to skip the month of April to avoid spawning bass. I mean, catching & releasing is better for the population than keeping them. Many of the same people who won't fish for bedding bass have no issue taking a limit of crappie during their spawn.

I try some new things every year. If a buddy tells me he's killing it with a new bait/technique, I just have to try it. This past year I tried the Johnson Silver Minnow in gold with a trailer with success. But I never get away from topwaters, spinnerbaits and jigs. I've caught my biggest fish in the last few years on these baits. I've hardly fished a conventional T rig in a few years. But I do what I enjoy. I really don't enjoy fishing slowly. I think I need to move further south.

Mine too. But I keep a Chug Bug handy. It does better for me when the water is bathtub warm.

For me, drag setting depends on the lure and technique. It's a matter of feel. But you can put more drag on a single hook lure like a T rig (maybe 50% of tensile strength, assuming mono or fluoro) than you can on treble lures (1/3 or less of tensile strength). If you yank a fish in on heavy drag with a treble lure, you'll likely rip the hooks out. Then there's the frog and jig, which I set very heavy. I'm using 50# braid and not worried about it breaking or bending hooks. I set the hook and winch the fish in as quickly as possible.

I think we're about a month ahead of you. Our spawn is usually almost completely over before May. I would too if I was in So FL. ? In fact I walked the dog almost all day for two 6 hour days last winter.

2 springs ago I got a head start on them with a big WP before spawn. It seems it angered the bigger females. But last season my first topwater fish was off a bed on the frog.

"Hey y'all watch this!" (no one else around)

I could watch these all day

Yes, it takes a lot of practice to not yank a topwater away from the fish when you see an explosion. I've said before that I'd rather catch 5 bass on top than 10 on bottom. I even prefer a mid depth lure like lipless crank or spinnerbait to bumping bottom. I do flip the jig but that's because it catches so many big bass. And when you're pitching to specific targets, it keeps your hands busy. It's much faster of a technique than dragging a worm.

I've heard Jimmy Houston say that when you see turtles sunning, the water's warm enough for bass to chase a spinnerbait.

I know it's early, but it's my favorite way to catch bass. How early do you start fishing topwaters? I usually start trying as bass are moving shallower in prespawn. Here it usually doesn't produce until I start to see some bass cruising the shallows before they make beds. But I keep trying just in case. Every year I start a little earlier because when it does work, usually the size is good.

I see lots of good shoreline structure like docks, boathouses, seawalls, etc. If there is any vegetation in the warm months, fish it. That Lucy's Pond area sure looks fishy to me.

I settled on this one. Mostly because I had an Amazon gift card and there weren't many MH 2 pc BC rods available. It does have good reviews. I'll give my own review when I use it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PZBHB8P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

An inner tube? JK. Scour Craigslist and Offer Up. My buddy got a basic sit inside kayak for $100. It's nothing special, but gets him on the water every now and then. I'd really say you should save up to about $300 and you'll have some better options.

I noticed this BC reel is right in the price range their Tournament MB reel used to occupy. I have 3 of those reels and love them. Very good quality at that price point. Please give us a review when you try them out.

I like the leader short enough so that when I hook the bait on the hook keeper, the leader doesn't get into the first eye. That's because the leader is stiff. If it's bent there it will stay kinked. I doubt that matters one bit, but it's my preference. Lately, I've just gone with straight braid and it hasn't seemed to make any difference. Most of the time when I'm pitching a jig it's to a particular target. If there's a bass on it an I get a bite, it's usually on the first pitch. May I ask why you even want the reel spooled with braid? Is it for line memory?

I was using an Academy H2O reel, the TAC 40 reel for a few years. The best thing about it was it had a large diameter spool, thus didn't hold much line. It has developed a few issues so I replaced it with a Lew's Tournament MB reel I already had. It works quite well. There are reels out there for flipping with very high drag range. But I believe this one has 11 or 12 lb. I keep the drag very tight and I've only caught one bass that took drag on that reel and it didn't take much. It was 7.2 lb. And I probably didn't have the drag maxed out. I have two more of those reels I use for other techniques. It's a good reel for the money. They have since discontinued it but replaced it with another in the $129 range.

I've still got my dad's old Bantam XHS (extra high speed) reel that's a blazing 5.1:1.

It doesn't freeze here, so we go fishing. But I admit there are much longer fishless periods for me in the winter. I can't just go after work because it's dark and the best part of the day in inter is midday-afternoon. I need a nice day on the weekend or a day off. So I watch YouTube videos, order tackle I think I'll need in the spring, watch a lot of Netflix. Prime and Motor Trend on demand. If I lived where it does freeze I'd try to go ice fishing. I wouldn't mind doing it now.

1983 or so Daiwa PMF100Procaster Magforce. I asked for it for Christmas because I saw Bill Dance use it on TV. It still had the pushbutton spool release just like this. I was actually still using it up to about 5 years ago. Daiwa mailed me parts to fix it for free (not even postage) three times before it finally fell apart. It was state of the art when it came out. One of the first magnetic braking reels. It lasted so long it was a marvel of engineering.